Brush On The Marinade, Hold Off The Cancerous Compounds

Date:

June 28, 2007

Source:

University of Arkansas, Food Safety Consortium

Summary:

With the summer steak season in swing indoors and outdoors, cooks can season the meat on the grill and provide some protection against cancer all at the same time. All it takes is marinating the steaks with certain herbs and spices. But before heading out to the grill, J. Scott Smith examined some possibilities in the laboratory. Smith, a professor of food chemistry at Kansas State University, investigated for the Food Safety Consortium what effect marinating steaks could have on reducing carcinogenic compounds known as HCAs.

Share:

Total shares:

FULL STORY

With the summer steak season in swing indoors and outdoors, cooks can season the meat on the grill and provide some protection against cancer all at the same time.

All it takes is marinating the steaks with certain herbs and spices. But before heading out to the grill, J. Scott Smith examined some possibilities in the laboratory. Smith, a professor of food chemistry at Kansas State University, investigated for the Food Safety Consortium what effect marinating steaks could have on reducing carcinogenic compounds known as HCAs.

“Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) in foods have been in the spotlight for many years,” Smith said. “They are carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds that are found at parts per billion levels in cooked fish and meats.”

Previous research has shown that grilled beef is a major source of dietary HCAs when cooked at temperatures from 375 degrees F (190.5 degrees C) and above.

Consuming dietary carcinogens has been associated with different cancers in humans and one of the HCAs was shown this year to cause prostate cancer in rats. Smith said that’s why it’s necessary to find ways to prevent HCAs from forming in cooked meats.

“Cooking meats with natural antioxidants decreases or eliminates HCAs on meat,” Smith said. Consumers have responded favorably to natural food products in recent years, including natural spices, such as rosemary, which are rich in antioxidants.

Smith’s research group began experimenting with marinades containing herbs and spices, notably those related from the mint family such as basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, and thyme. Most of these herbs are rich in three compounds – carnosic acid, carnosol and rosmarinic acid – that are potent antioxidants.

“We believe that addition of various substances to the meat before cooking may reduce the carcinogenic HCAs,” Smith said. “Marinating steak before grilling is a practical way to reduce HCA contents of even well-done beef for many consumers.”

Smith’s group measured the HCAs in grilled round steaks and found that after marinating them with a commercial product containing rosemary and thyme, the cooked product’s level of reduced HCAs – an 87 percent decrease – correlated to the amount of antioxidants present in the marinades.

The marinade containing rosemary and thyme had the greatest effect on reducing HCAs, but two other marinades with different herbs seasonings were tested and found to be almost as effective. The rosemary/thyme marinade also contained pepper, allspice and salt. Another marinade included oregano, thyme, garlic and onion. A third marinade had oregano, garlic, basil, onion and parsley.

The marinades are all available in grocery stores. “These are the ones that are packaged as powders,” Smith said. “There are different brands. We followed the marinating instructions according to the label. We cooked it and it tasted fine.”

Consumers can also add the herbs/spices directly to their product, such as ground beef.

Smith intends to investigate other seasonings to determine their potency in reducing HCAs. “I plan on taking a look at a lot of them, probably about 20 of them. The major ones are in the mint family: basil, sage, thyme, oregano and rosemary. They have some similar properties,” he said. Other possibilities for research include parsley, fennel, paprika, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon.

Smith also wants to look into what possible changes that the antioxidants could cause with regard to taste, texture and nutritional content, if any. Results so far, however, do not indicate any major alterations are taking place.

University of Arkansas, Food Safety Consortium. "Brush On The Marinade, Hold Off The Cancerous Compounds." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 June 2007. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627124111.htm>.

University of Arkansas, Food Safety Consortium. (2007, June 28). Brush On The Marinade, Hold Off The Cancerous Compounds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 2, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627124111.htm

University of Arkansas, Food Safety Consortium. "Brush On The Marinade, Hold Off The Cancerous Compounds." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627124111.htm (accessed August 2, 2015).

July 31, 2015  Resettlement projects in the Amazon are driving severe tropical deforestation, according to new research. Widely hailed as a socially responsible and 'innocuous' strategy of land redistribution, ... read more

July 29, 2015  Viewing aquarium displays led to noticeable reductions in blood pressure and heart rate, a research team found in the first study of its kind. They also noted that higher numbers of fish helped to ... read more

July 31, 2015  A new study examines how consuming the concentrated extract of thylakoids found in spinach can reduce hunger and cravings. Thylakoids encourage the release of satiety hormones, which is very ... read more

July 30, 2015  The behavior of fruit flies, which are commonly used in laboratory experiments, is altered by electric fields, new research shows. The research indicates that the wings of the insects are disturbed ... read more

July 31, 2015  Starvation early in life can alter an organism for generations to come, according to a new study in nematodes. The epigenetic effects are a 'bet-hedging strategy.' Famine survivors are smaller and ... read more

July 31, 2015  The humble butterfly could hold the key to unlocking new techniques to make solar energy cheaper and more efficient, pioneering new research has shown. By mimicking the v-shaped posture adopted by ... read more

Mar. 26, 2014  The smells of summer -- the sweet fragrance of newly opened flowers, the scent of freshly cut grass and the aroma of meats cooking on the backyard grill -- will soon be upon us. Now, researchers are ... read more

June 28, 2011  Top sirloin steaks have been getting a grilling in food safety studies. Microbiologists are conducting experiments to help make sure that neither the food-borne pathogen Escherichia coli O157:H7 nor ... read more